


while the crown hangs heavy on either side

by JustRoxy



Category: Torchwood
Genre: AU, Badwolf!Jack, Other, Time Vortex, but it’ll all be okay in the end i promise, set before reset, there’s probably gonna be some angst in here i apologise
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:00:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 8,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26817742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustRoxy/pseuds/JustRoxy
Summary: What if immortality wasn’t the only thing Jack gained?(title from far too young to die by the brobecks)
Relationships: Gwen Cooper/Rhys Williams, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Toshiko Sato/Owen Harper
Comments: 9
Kudos: 55





	1. Chapter 1

Jack Harkness loved Ianto Jones.

Despite the immortal’s best efforts, the young welshman had managed to break down every protective barrier Jack had built around himself over the years he’d been stuck on earth. Thats why, when a gun was held to Ianto’s head, Jack didn’t know what the hell to do.

—————————————————————————

The day wasn’t off to a great start.

The Torchwood team had been tracking a group of alien weapon dealers for a good few weeks now and they had been damn close to getting them. Unfortunately, the arms dealers had decided that now was the perfect time to drop off of the radar, and however brilliant Tosh’s modified Mirolilan latent scanner was, it wasn’t able to catch a trace of them.

Ianto could tell, as he did his morning coffee round, that it was going to be a long day. He walked up to Jack’s office and knocked on the door, more out of habit than anything else. Jack’s muffled voice told him it was okay to come in and the young man stepped inside.

“Coffee, Sir.”

Jack looked up from the paperwork he was not doing and smiled at his lover. “Thanks, Ianto.” he gestured towards the door “Tosh had any luck with that thingy yet?”

“If you mean the Mirolilan latent scanner Sir, then no.” The welshman smiled slightly at Jack’s question. “I believe she was-“

He was cut off by a large crash from the main area of the Hub, followed by a string of creative cussing (undoubtedly from Owen, Ianto was yet to meet anyone else with such a large knowledge of swear words). Jack quickly got up from his desk and darted outside, nearly knocking over poor Gwen who had come to hand in her report on last weeks “Giant gummy worms from space” incident.

“What the hell is going on?” The immortal yelled, quickly followed by “Is everyone okay?”

“Yeah, we’re fine, Owen just knocked the latent scanner over” Tosh replied, giving the medic a half-hearted glare.

“Oi! it’s hardly my fault you left that thing lying around.” Owen looked as if he was about to say something else, but he stopped as he noticed that the scanner was flashing. 

“Uhh...Tosh, love? Is it meant to be doing that?”

Tosh’s eyes widened as she darted back to her computer. 

“I have a lock a location! it seems to be a warehouse, just outside of Cardiff.”

The team all immediately sprang into action, getting ready to set off. Gwen tossed Ianto his gun (perhaps not the best idea but at least the safety was on.) and they all made their way to the SUV. 

Jack made a move to get into the drivers seat but after four sharp looks from the rest of the team, he relented and let Gwen take the wheel. The drive to the warehouse was a lot safer that way, if slightly longer.

—————————————————————————

The sense of anticipation in the SUV was almost palpable, the team had been waiting for this moment for almost a month and none of them wanted it to go wrong. They climbed out of the car in silence and they all made their way to the positions they’d agreed on on the way over.

After a second of hesitation, Jack and Ianto made their way inside. Guns aimed, they walked down the short, narrow corridor that lead from the old office area to the main body of the building. Muffled voices grew louder until their words where coherent. Jack made his way behind a crate and Ianto started to follow.

“HEY!”

Shit. Someone had seen him. The welshman was yanked roughly from behind and had a gun pushed against his skull. Understandably, he struggled.

“Any more of you wanna show yourselves?” his captor yelled and slowly, with his hand in the air, Jack emerged from his hiding place. Suddenly, Tosh and Owen burst in, lead by Gwen. Their appearance must’ve startled the arms dealer as before his associates could draw their own weapons, he fired the gun that was held just inches away from Ianto’s head.

The bullet froze.

Ianto didn’t notice that until that fact that he wasn’t dead on the floor registered. He opened his eyes (he didn’t remember closing them) and stared at the thing that almost ended his life. Then he stared at Jack.

Jack, who didn’t seem to be Jack anymore.

He was just standing there, his hands had dropped from their previous position and were now hanging limply by his sides, fingers loosely holding the butt of his Webley. A strange, golden tinted wind had picked up and it was beginning to swirl around him. His irises had lost their usual grey-blue tone and were now completely golden.

It was impossible to tell where time started and Jack ended.

Owen seemed to recover from the shock first, closely followed by Tosh and Gwen.

The three torchwood agents slowly made their way around Jack - or whatever the hell it was - and towards Ianto. After Owen assessed him and found no apparent injuries, The medic, Gwen and Tosh turned to restrain the three weapons dealers, who unlike the Torchwood team, had NOT recovered from the shock yet.

The criminals were safely put to the side (after being cuffed to each other to ensure they couldn’t get away) and the team gathered around the time-frozen bullet. Owen reached a slightly trembling hand out to touch it but found that he couldn’t. He then turned his attention back to his boss. The others followed.

It was Gwen who spoke first. “D’you reckon he’s okay?” it was uttered as little more than a whisper.

“Only one way to find out.” Ianto said, stepping forward.

Tosh grabbed his arm “Ianto that doesn’t seem like a very good idea” 

The archivist gave her a small smile as he gently pulled away, grateful that she cared. He took a deep breath and approached the Captain.

The wind surrounding him seemed to have grown stronger while they had all been distracted and Ianto brought his hand up to shield his eyes. He squinted, making his way through the golden haze and finally, he was standing in front of Jack. A Jack who didn’t seem to notice he was standing there.

“Sir?” No response.

“Jack?” Nothing.

Hesitantly, Ianto reached out a shaky hand to touch his lover’s chest. Jack let out a ragged gasp and after a second, looked at Ianto for what felt like the first time in decades.

“Ianto....?”

“I’m here, Jack” Ianto responded, inching closer to the immortal. “Can you stop this?” he asked, gesturing to the wind that was becoming very close to dangerous.

“I- I don’t think I can” Jack answered. He looked like he was crying.

“Please, Jack. Someone might get hurt.” 

The Captain brought a hand up to Ianto’s cheek. He looked like he was about to speak but his eyes fluttered closed and seconds later, he collapsed. Ianto caught him as he heard the bullet clatter to the floor.


	2. Chapter 2

Jack was still out when they got back to the Hub.

The ride back had been completely quiet (after Gwen had called one PC Davidson with a special request involving the transportation of three weapons dealers), nobody knowing quite what to say. Ianto was sat in the back, Jack’s head on his lap, the immortal’s legs across Tosh’s as he lay along the back seat. Owen was in the driver’s seat this time, Gwen having opted to sit in the passenger side. When they pulled up to the Hub, Owen ran on ahead to the med bay, closely followed by Tosh who rushed to her work station. Gwen and Ianto gently lifted Jack and carried him down to the med bay, laying him on the autopsy table.

“Tosh, love? Are you coming down?” The medic yelled.

Tosh hummed a yes and came down the stairs.

“Just checking you didn’t break anything else earlier.”

Owen rolled his eyes, smiling slightly before he went serious again.

“So...what do we do now?” Gwen asked.

“We wait for him to wake up, I guess?” Ianto glanced at Owen.

“Right. Yeah. I’ll run some blood tests while he’s out, see what’s up.” The medic moved off to the side to prepare some needles. He jumped back when Jack grabbed onto his wrist, the glass syringe in his hand dropping to shatter on the floor.

“Guess he’s awake, then.” Tosh moved to the side to let Ianto get to Jack.

The welshman grabbed ahold of his lover’s hand and gripped it tight.

“Jack? are you alright?”

Jack sat up a bit, groaning slightly as he did so.

“Think so. What happened? Did I die or somethin’?”

Ianto winced at that last part, not wanting to think about the Captain’s many deaths.

“No, you just collapsed, I think Owen wants to do a few tests?” he looked sideways at the Doctor for affirmation.

“Yep, just to see what you were faintin’ for, nothing big.” It was a lie, but a smooth one.

“I’m fine, no need.” Jack grinned and made a move to get up. 

Ianto tugged him back down onto the table.

“Jack just let Owen have a look, it’ll only take two minutes.” Gwen said. Tosh nodded her agreement.

“Oh, alright then.” He relented, though he looked a bit unsure.

Ianto smiled and stepped to the side (still holding Jack’s hand) to let Owen take a blood sample. The Doctor rolled up Jack’s sleeve and slid the needle in, withdrawing it when he had the full 2.5ml he needed. As he moved away to examine it under some sort of microscope that had fallen through the rift about a year previously (If he couldn't spot any anomalies with the microscope, he’d try mixing it with some chemical or other), the other three team members crowded back around Jack.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” That was from Tosh.

“Yeah, fine. Just...I don’t know...fainted I guess?”  
Jack grimaced. THE Captain Jack Harkness did not faint. Well, there was a first time for everything, he supposed.

“Well, there’s certainly nothing out of the ordinary here.” Owen looked confused, turning to the rest of them. 

“See? I’m fine! What are you all so worried about?” Jack got up, stumbling slightly, turning at the suspicious lack of response from his team.

“Something happened, didn’t it?”

————————————————————————

Jack and Ianto were the only two left in the Hub, the others being sent home because “if you’re not gonna tell me what happened you might as well all go home”. Jack had been sitting up in his office for a while and Ianto decided it was time that he tried to talk to the man. He made his way over to the kitchenette and started brewing two cups of coffee, Jack hadn’t had time to finish his this morning before they all rushed out. Ianto finished prepping the drinks and carefully made his way to Jack, not wanting to spill a drop of coffee.

He budged the door open with his hip.

“Jack? I brought you some coffee.”

Jack looked up and smiled at him.

“Thanks.”

“Look, Jack, are you sure you’re okay?”

Jack looked slightly irritated at that.

“Ianto, I promise i’m fine. I’m not sure what happened earlier but i doubt it’ll happen again, okay?” He got up and pulled Ianto into a tight hug.

Ianto hugged him back, resting his chin on Jack’s shoulder.

“Just scared me a bit, y’know?” He wasn’t lying, the whole situation had scared the absolute shit out of him, but Jack didn’t need to know what happened. He probably wouldn’t take it very well anyways.

“Believe me, I know.” Jack pulled away slightly.  
“Come to bed?” Ianto raised his eyebrow.

“I meant to sleep, this time. At least, I think I did.” the Captain smiled slightly.

“I know, back to mine?”

“Please.”

————————————————————————

They pulled up outside Ianto’s apartment building at around 11:30, fairly early by Torchwood standards. The Lift was still broken (Ianto was starting to doubt that it had ever worked in the first place) so they had to walk all the way up to the 9th floor. Ianto unlocked his front door and ushered Jack inside. The immortal made his way through to the bedroom, Ianto followed closely behind him. They got ready for bed in an unusual silence and slid under the covers. Only then did they touch each other. Pressed so closely to Jack that he wasn’t sure where his own body ended, Ianto turned out the lights.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, no beta so all mistakes are the fault of yours truly.


	3. Chapter 3

Neither of them slept well that night.

Jack lay with his head on Ianto’s chest, thinking back through the events of the day. If he was honest with himself, the whole “fainting-and-memory-gap” business scared the shit out of him, not to mention that the team outright refused to talk about what happened. The nagging voice at the back of his mind that said that maybe he couldn’t trust them as much as he thought he could grew louder. He tried to dismiss the thought but couldn’t quite manage to shake it.

Ianto wasn’t fairing too well either. The welshman really was concerned for Jack and it probably didn’t help that he just couldn’t seem to wrap his head around what exactly the fuck had happened. He was more than concerned for his lover and wanted to help the man laying beside him more than anything. Sure, he may also feel a tiny bit scared about the whole fiasco, but above anything else, he just wanted Jack safe.

————————————————————————

Jack and Ianto arrived later than usual at the Hub the next day and, for once, nobody commented.

The other three members of torchwood were busy processing the cell’s newest occupants - the arms dealers. PC Andy had dropped them off earlier after having kept them in a holding cell down at the police station overnight. Tosh was examining some of the weapons that they had brought in, Gwen was running background checks on all three if their new prisoners and Owen was, surprisingly, cleaning up the med bay.

They all froze for a second when they saw Jack. It wasn’t long enough for him to notice. He smiled at them all and made his way up to his office and thus, the day began.

————————————————————————

It was a quiet day - in contrast to the previous and Jack spent most of it up in his office.

The rest of the team, however, spent it rewatching CCTV footage from the warehouse and (with several cups of Ianto’s fantastic coffee) tried to understand what they had seen. Ianto had taken several trips down to the archives to bring up files for reference but none of them gave the team any hint as to what was going on with their leader.

“Well maybe it has something to do with one of the big alien guns or something?” Owen took another drink from his coffee.

Tosh shook her head. “No, I looked at all of them this morning, there was nothing unusual about them. Apart from the whole, y’know, alien thing.”

“Gwen, Ianto?” Owen asked the other two.

Gwen shook her head. “Nope. Couldn’t we...just ask him?” She glanced up to Jack’s office.

“I don’t think he remembers what happened” Ianto sighed.

“Well we could show him the CCTV…?” Gwen said hesitantly.

The group exchanged looks.

Owen made to get up. “Worth a shot.”

————————————————————————

Jack looked up as he heard the knock on his door. “Come in”

He shifted the papers that he’d been pretending to fill in to the side and smiled hesitantly when he noticed that the whole team had come to see him at once. That was never a good thing.

“So...what can do for you all?”

Gwen took a step forward. They had all agreed, on the way up, that Gwen would try and talk to him first.

“Jack, about yesterday. When you, y’know, collapsed.” She started.

Jack raised an eyebrow slightly.  
“Go on…”

“Well...it’s just...are you sure you don’t remember what happened?”

Jack was apprehensive now. “Yes, why?”

“Ianto, Tosh, Owen and I were looking back through the warehouse footage to try and figure out what happened, but we still don’t really know what happened. D’you think you could think you could take a look?”

The tension in the room was heavy as they all waited for Jack’s answer.

“Sure”

———————————————————————-

They all gathered around Tosh’s desk as she pulled the footage up. It had no audio so the Hub was deathly silent as they all watched.

The events of the previous day unfolded on the screen in front of them. Jack’s eyes widened in shock as he stared at the screen. Vague memories filtered through his mind but not enough to form a coherent picture. The rest of the team had stopped watching in favor of looking at him. Ianto hesitantly put a hand and Jack’s shoulder, startling the immortal slightly.

“Jack?” Ianto swallowed.

“Yeah…?” The Captain’s voice was hoarse.

“Are you all right? Do you want to sit down?”

Jack nodded wordlessly and took a seat on Tosh’s desk chair. She didn’t comment.

“D‘you remember what happened now?” Owen sat down on Tosh’s desk. That earned him a glare.

“Yeah I-“ Jack cut himself off. “A bit.” 

“Could you...maybe try and explain it a bit?” Gwen asked, looking up from her lap.

The immortal nodded again. “I don’t remember all that much honestly, but i’ll try.”

Ianto grabbed another chair from the neighboring desk (Gewn’s) and settled himself down next to Jack.

“It’s OK, take your time.” The welshman reached out to grab his lover’s hand.

Jack smiled at him gratefully and squeezed his hand back. The Captain took a deep breath before he began.

“There was - I think - some sort of golden light…?” He rubbed his eyes, trying to solidify the image in his mind. “It hurt - almost. Like the pain was far away, but I could somehow still feel it. It was also...warm, like the sun, in a weird way.”

Ianto nodded patiently. “Can you remember anything else?”

Jack looked thoughtful for a moment.

“No.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No beta, again.


	4. Chapter 4

There was a slightly awkward silence after Jack had finished speaking, everyone trying to piece together what they had just heard.

It was Gwen who spoke up first.

“We still have to question those weapons dealers.”

“Yeah, we should probably do that then” Owen said “I’ll look over their medical records if you can identify them, Tosh?”

“On it.” Tosh turned to her screen to access the face match software.

Jack got up off his seat. “Gwen, you and I will go in first. Ianto, do you want to take notes on this?”

“Yep.” The welshman nodded. They kept audio recordings of all interrogations in the archives, but Ianto liked to have a physical transcript to go along with it.

“Okay,” Tosh announced “our guys are Dylan Bevan, 32, Arwyn Thomas, 29 and Dai Lloyd, 30” she glanced up from her screen “Dai Lloyd was the one who shot at Ianto.”

“The one who did what?” Jack turned to her. The CCTV footage hadn’t shown that.

Ianto stepped towards Jack and entwined their hands, squeezing lightly.

“I’m fine, Jack. Not even a scratch.”

The Captain nodded mutely. They’d talk about this later.

Gwen had slipped down to retrieve their first subject for questioning and had just returned, dragging Arwyn Thomas through to the interrogation room. The young man was silent, but defiant as he begrudgingly allowed himself to be across the hub.

Jack snapped himself back to reality “That's our que.” he slipped his hand out of Ianto’s and followed Gwen through.

The welshman sighed slightly, knowing his lover was still worried, following after the Captain. He entered the room and quietly closed the door behind him. He then turned to the small side table and chair in the corner and sat himself down, picking a notebook up off the table as he did so.

Gwen cuffed Arwyn’s hands to a metal bar on the main table of the room. The table itself was quite large, leaving only a little room around the edges to walk around the side of the room. Jack pulled up a chair on the opposite side of the table and flung himself down on it. Ianto and Gwen exchanged looks at the immortal’s dramatics as the Ex-PC sat herself down, placing a small recording device on the surface in front of her.

“Suspect’s name is Arwyn Thomas, aged 29. Interrogation to be led be Torchwood agent 051, Captain Jack Harkness and assisted by Torchwood agent 378, Gwen Cooper. Also present is Torchwood agent 302, Ianto Jones.”  
Gwen glanced at her watch. “Interrogation commencing 11:34.”

Jack leaned forward and pressed his hands onto the table.

“So, Arwyn...I can call you Arwyn right? Mr Thomas is a bit to formal for my personal tastes”  
The Immortal flashed a disconcertingly friendly grin. “Care to tell us what you and your pals were doing trading alien weapons?”

Ianto made notes of their suspect’s body language, stuff like that wouldn’t be included on the audio recording and it would be helpful to have a recording of.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Arwyn said, and then, almost as an afterthought “Aliens aren’t real, what are you on about?”

Jack was standing up now, pacing in a slightly intimidating manner.

“Oh, really? Y’see, we’ve been tracking you and your friends for quite some time and we know that you know about aliens, but that’s not what bothers us, not really. What we really want to know, though, is who’s supplying you with the guns. Who’s your source, kid?”

Arwyn glanced up from where he’d been staring.  
“Starcross”

“Starcross?” Gwen repeated. “Who are they? some kind of company?”

“I don’t know, okay?” the young man was getting restless. “We never met them...we’d receive a text from an untraceable number with a location and the name of who we were selling to, yeah? I swear that’s all I know.”

Jack stared at him for a moment before nodding.

“Can you prove that?”

“I can’t, they always texted Dai’s phone, ask him.”

Gwen smiled reassuringly. “Okay, thank you.”

She got up to leave and was followed by Jack and, after he’d replaced his notebook, Ianto.

Once they got outside, Jack spoke. “Ianto, what do you think?”

The welshman thought for a moment. “I think he’s telling the truth.”

“Only one way to find out.” Jack said, turning to Gwen. “Could you bring up Dylan Bevan?”

The welshwoman furrowed her brow. “But he said that the text was on Dai Lloyd’s phone”

“I know, but I want to save him ‘til last.” There was something menacing in Jack’s tone and Gewn knew better than to argue. She nodded and began to make her way down to the vaults.

—————————————————————————-

“Owen, you don’t usually check medical records without a particular reason, what’s so special about these guys?” Tosh made her way down the medbay steps.

Owen clutched his chest. “Christ. Tosh love, are you trying to give me a heart attack?” The medic turned away from his monitor to face her.

Tosh raised an expectant eyebrow at him.

Owen rolled his eyes. “I’m looking for any anomalies, anything we could investigate to see if there’s any link to what went on with Jack.” 

“I’m assuming you mean some sort of alien intervention? I doubt you’d find anything documented.”

“Yeah, I know, I know. No harm in checking though, right?”

“I guess so.” Tosh took a step towards him to see if she could offer any help. She wasn’t a doctor, but she was still a genius.

They both scanned through the files three separate times before giving up.

Owen sighed.

“It was worth a try.” Tosh offered, she knew how concerned Owen was - hell, they were all concerned, The medic just liked to pretend he didn’t care.

Owen nodded absently “I have no idea what it could be, I mean, i’ve never seen anything like it!”


	5. Chapter 5

Both Tosh and Owen were silent for a minute, thinking things over.

Hesitantly, Owen spoke up.

“What if we..y’know...recreated the event..?”

Tosh’s eyes widened.

“Owen! We can’t just shoot Ianto!”

“Yeah, I know, I know, love...but I can’t think of any other ideas.”

Tosh was quiet for a second before she spoke again.

“What if it’s related to his immortality?”

Owen raised his eyebrows approvingly.

“Tosh, love, you are a genius.”

She smiled at him.

“Well, then. I’m sure we can come up with something from here.”

————————————————————————  
Gwen once again set up the recording device.

“Dylan Bevan, aged 32. Questioning to be led be Torchwood agent 051, Captain Jack Harkness and assisted by Torchwood agent 378, Gwen Cooper. Also present is Torchwood agent 302, Ianto Jones.”

This time, it was Jack who checked the time.

“Interrogation commencing 12:13”

Ianto just about managed to scribble down the time before Jack began speaking again.

“So, Dylan…” The Immortal was leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. “What do you know about ‘Starcross’?”

Dylan looked up, evidently surprised.

“How do you know about that, then?” He asked indignantly.

“Your little friend decided that it would be best to speak up.” Jack looked into Dylan’s eyes. “I would recommend you do the same.”

Gwen felt an involuntary shiver travel down her spine. She’d almost forgotten just how scary Jack could be. Their suspect seemed just as terrified. Ianto made a note of it in his margin, he’d probably copy it all up later and he didn’t want to miss a single thing.

Dylan tried staring back into Jack’s own eyes, but eventually he gave up.

“I- I don’t know much, honest!” He paused for a second, gathering his thoughts. “Dai always managed the communications, Me and Arwyn just went along with it.”

“So you’re telling me you just transported and delivered the weapons?” Jack raised an eyebrow.

Dylan nodded his head.

“Gwen, take him back down, would you?”

“Yep, should I bring Dai Lloyd up with me?” 

Jack’s expression darkened for a brief moment before he nodded.

“Please.”

The three Torchwood members left the room, Gwen turning down to the vaults, the other two choosing to stay outside the interrogation room.

Ianto gently placed his hand on his lover’s shoulder. 

“Jack, i’m okay. You don’t need to worry.”

The captain nodded, not making eye contact.

“I know...I just…” He dragged his hand down his face. “But what if you weren’t?”

Ianto shifted so Jack’s head was resting against his shoulder.

“I am, though, Jack. You saved me…somehow.”

Jack chuckled weakly.

“I could’ve hurt you though, we still have no idea what happened.”

Ianto stroked the immortal’s hair lightly, a gesture he learned helped calm Jack down and let him relax.

“But you didn’t. It’s over. Nobody got hurt, yeah?”

“Yeah.” Jack responded, standing up straight again, pretending that vulnerable expression that had been on his face just moments ago hadn’t been there at all. 

Ianto didn’t mind, he’d talk to Jack later, when they were alone in Jack’s bunker...or Ianto’s flat, wherever they happened to end up.

—————————————————————————

“So if it IS related to Jack’s immortality, how comes we haven’t seen anything like this until now?”

Tosh looked thoughtful for a moment before she answered.

“Maybe...maybe it was always there? Kind of like it was...dormant?”

Owen nodded.

“Then, the man Jack loves is in danger and suddenly…” The medic mimed an explosion.

“Yep…” Tosh trailed off.

“D’you think this...whatever this is...reacts to strong emotion?”

“It’s a definite possibility.”

“So if we replicated that strong emotion...we could try and work out what’s up?”

“Maybe, I don’t imagine Jack would be too eager to try that though.” Tosh wasn’t that eager herself to put her friend through that again. She knew that Owen wasn’t either, but they were running out of ideas.

“Yeah, I don’t think the rest of us are either.”

“Hypothetically...how would you do even manage that?”

Owen shrugged, trying to create an image of nonchalance. It didn’t work very well.

“I don’t know, Ianto could probably find something in the archives to help…” The doctor seemed to double take. “Why are we even discussing this? We can’t put our boss through some quite possible emotional trauma to prove a theory based on nothing, can we?”

Tosh bit her lip. “No, not really.”

Owen jigged his leg nervously. “I mean...we could always ask him what he thinks we should do...he is the one with the ‘incomprehensible power’ here, right?”

Tosh nodded. “We should write up a list of probable causes, even if we think we already know. That way we can see what Jack thinks is the most likely.”

“Yeah, good idea.”

—————————————————————————

Dai Lloyd was already sitting in the interrogation room when Jack and Ianto re-entered. Gwen had taken her own seat opposite their suspect and was currently giving him a glare that, if looks could kill, would leave even Jack himself dead for good. Safe to say, she didn’t take too kindly to the attempt on her best friend’s life. 

Ianto briefly cast a look at his would-be-murderer before he took his seat in the corner. Jack however, resumed his previous position against the wall, though his pose was tenser this time.

Gwen continued to glare at Dai as Ianto opened his notes, getting ready to resume. Jack cast a worried glance over his shoulder at his lover. The young welshman gave the immortal a small, reassuring smile. Sure the whole thing had shaken him up but this thing that was happening to Jack was scaring him a hell of a lot more. He couldn’t bear to lose someone he loved again. 

Gwen leaned forward to switch on the recording device.

“Suspect’s name is Dai Lloyd, aged 30. Torchwood agents present stated on the previous two recordings in this case file.”

She inhaled “The current time is 13:06. Interrogation commencing.”


	6. Chapter 6

“Okay, d’you think that’s them all?” Owen looked down at their list.

“I can’t think of anything else.” Tosh skimmed over it, making a quick correction to some of Owen’s spellings.

“So, we’ve got: Reaction to strong emotion, reaction to alien intervention (Not weapons, Tosh already checked those), Long term rift exposure, Mystery from Jack’s past that he won’t talk about and Mass hallucination.” The medic spoke.

Tosh stifled a giggle at the last one. “Our job would be so much easier if everything was as simple as ‘mass hallucination’, don’t you think?”

Owen grinned. “Yeah, it’d be a hell of a lot more dull, though.”

“I suppose. So, are we ready to get Jack’s ‘expert’ opinion?”

“I’d say so, after you, Tosh, love.” The medic gestured for Tosh to lead the way.

—————————————————————————

The interrogation had been going on for at least fifty minutes and they still hadn’t got a single word out of Dai Lloyd. Jack had started pacing about fifteen minutes ago, Gwen had kept up her glaring and Ianto had begun to twirl his pen in his fingers. It was safe to say that the welshman wasn’t enjoying being in the same room as his would-be-killer for extended periods of time. Jack muttered a few curses in a presumably alien language before he turned his attention back to their detainee.

“Alright, kid. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Either you speak up voluntarily or not. We’ll get the information we want eventually.”

Dai made eye contact. “You think you scare me, Old man? You can’t make me tal-”

He was cut off by the sound of Jack’s fist thumping the table.

“You don’t seem to understand what’s goin’ on here. Tell us what you know.”

Their prisoner smirked. “I’m not saying anything without a lawyer.”

Jack laughed and went to reply, but Gwen got their first.

“You don’t get a Lawyer, we’re not law enforcement and we sure as hell will not be reading you your rights. So, if you know what’s good for you, I’d recommend that you answer his questions.” She jerked her head in the direction of her boss. 

Dai had the decency to look slightly intimidated but he held his ground. “You’re all crazy.”

Jack grinned humorlessly. “Welcome to Torchwood.”

Their prisoner’s eyes widened at the mention of the organisation name. “Shit…”

“Care to elaborate on that?” Jack leaned forward, hands pressed onto the table top.

Dai seemed to consider for a moment, before he spoke. “They warned me about you lot.”

“Who? Starcross?” Gwen asked.

“Dylan and Arwyn tell you that?”

“As a matter of fact, they did.” She crossed her arms.

Dai quickly looked for some form of diversion. No way was he going to talk. “The guy in the corner seems pretty quiet. Doesn't he want a go as well?”

“Leave Ianto out of this.” Jack growled.

Ianto hesitantly placed his notebook down and approached the center of the room. He linked hands with Jack and squeezed his lover’s reassuringly.

“You called, Mr. Lloyd?” He said, as formal as ever.

Dai looked confused for a moment. “Didn’t I shoot you?”

The three Torchwood agents exchanged looks.

“You don’t remember what happened after?” Gwen enquired.

“Of course I do! I…” He trailed off. 

“Excuse us for a moment” Ianto dragged the other two outside.

————————————————————————-

The three of them stood outside the interrogation room, slightly confused.

“If he doesn’t remember, the other two might not either.” Gwen glanced over to her friends.

“Yeah, but I also didn’t remember it and the whole thing was my fault.” Jack sighed in exasperation.

Gwen looked at the Captain. “You listen here, Jack Harkness. None of that was your fault. You saved Ianto’s life, yeah? Tell me, is there anything wrong about that.

Jack opened his mouth to counter but he was interrupted by Tosh and Owen.

“Jack?” The latter said. “We may have some ideas. About the whole...y’know.”

The immortal nodded. “Gwen, take Dai back down to the vaults. We’ll finish questioning him later.”

The others made their way up to the boardroom but were cut off by a yell from Gwen.

“Jack!”

They all immediately rushed back down to the interrogation room and ran inside.

Dai Lloyd was dead. Head lying on the table and no obvious cause of death.

—————————————————————————

They had all finally gathered in the boardroom, after Jack had deemed that the autopsy could wait and the body had been placed into cold storage.

“So, Toshiko, Owen, what’ve you got for us?” Jack flung himself into his chair.

Tosh rolled her eyes, sitting down normally. “Me and Owen compiled a list of possible causes for what happened with you in the warehouse. We’re pretty sure which one it is but we thought it’d be best to ask you first.”

The immortal nodded. “Shoot.”

“So, our main theory is that it’s somehow linked to your immortality, so we came up with a few ideas of what could’ve maybe ‘triggered’ it. Owen? If you would care to read the list?”

The medic reeled it off, adding a bit more detail to certain points.

“So, what does everyone think, hm?”

Everyone glanced at Jack. 

“Honestly? I have no damn clue, you two are the scientists or whatever.” He gestured to Owen and Tosh.

The two exchanged looks before Tosh spoke.

“We think it might be related to strong emotions, but we don’t really have any way to test that.”

“Says who?” Jack responded.

Tosh looked surprised. “Jack we can’t just do something like that, god knows how it could end!”

“And god knows how it would end it something like that happened out in the field again? I’m not going to endanger you all because the results of a test could cause damage. Lock me in a controlled environment or something!”

“Jack are you sure about this?” Ianto asked quietly.

“Yes. I don’t want to run the risk of hurting you.”

“Right then.” Owen nodded, looking unsure. “Let’s get to it then.”


	7. Chapter 7

Owen couldn’t find anything that could’ve possibly caused death when he performed the autopsy. Jack told him to make a note and come back to it later after they had finished the ‘test’. Test wasn’t the word the medic would use, he thought of it as more of an experiment and he hated the idea of doing something like that to a friend. Alas, it may be the only way they discovered what was truly going on so he begrudgingly went along with it.

—————————————————————————

Jack had decided that it was to take place in the gun range. Lots of empty-ish space to minimize collateral damage and an area sectioned off by bulletproof glass for the rest of the team to watch from.

They were all currently standing in said area (The Captain included), listening to Ianto explain the device that was going to help them.

“So, basically, this thing amplifies emotions by one hundred percent...or so the archive notes say, anyways. I didn’t catalog it.”

“Thanks Ianto, very reassuring.” Gwen said. “How do we use it?”

“Well, you just put it around your neck, I suppose.”

“How do we know which emotion Jack was feeling though?” Tosh looked at the group.

“Well, we don’t.” Owen began. “I imagine that there was many things runnin’ through his head at the time, quite hard to pinpoint exactly which one it was.”

“I’m right here, y’know.” Jack raised an eyebrow, evidently unimpressed with being ignored.

“Sorry” Gwen smirked. “Let’s get on with it shall we?”

Owen clapped his hands together. “Okay, Jack, you get out into the shooty-tunnel thing. Tosh, you pull up the footage on the projector.”

Ianto quickly squeezed his lover’s hand before the man made his way out into the gun range, alien emotion pendant in hand.

“Everyone ready?” Tosh asked. The team nodded and she tapped her earpeice. “Jack?”

“Ready when you are.” Came the response as the immortal slipped the pendant around his neck.

Owen tapped a few keys on his laptop and Jack’s vitals popped up along with some other bits of information.

Tosh pressed play on the CCTV footage, this time, she had found a camera that showcased the bullet being shot at Ianto.

At first, it seemed like the plan hadn’t worked, like nothing was happening. Then, slowly, like before, a golden wind began to pick up. Everyone glanced at Owen’s screen, the only change was an increased heart rate.

Suddenly, one of the lightbulbs in the tunnel exploded. The shards of glass didn’t fall to the ground, however, they just froze in the air. Stuck in a moment of time.

“Owen? anything?” Ianto asked, it came out a bit sharper than he ment but for once, the Doctor didn’t comment.

“Vitals? No. Though i’m getting some strange energy readings, it seems like he’s creating energy.”

“But that’s impossible!” Tosh shifted to see for herself.

“Oh my god…”

————————————————————————

Jack was, at the least, slightly more aware of what was going on this time. He heard the distant sound of what he assumed was a lightbulb blowing. It wasn’t visible from the angle he was at, but he knew the shards had somehow frozen and that it was somehow his doing. Focusing as hard as he possibly could, the Immortal tried to break himself out of this haze of gold, but he couldn’t claw his way out of it. He felt like the expanse of time was crushing him, inside and out, forcing its way up his throat. The Captain thought he may have heard a voice, but his consciousness was slowly receding and it was only seconds until he fell to the floor.

————————————————————————

“Ianto!” Gwen grabbed her friend's arm to try and hold him back. “We don’t know if it’s safe to go in yet!”

The welshman ignored her, yanking his arm away. Gwen sighed and ran after him, closely followed by Owen and then Tosh.

Ianto pulled Jack’s head onto his lap, sweeping the immortal’s hair off of his face. Owen skidded to his knees beside them and quickly checked Jack’s pulse.

“He’s alive, just unconscious. Same as last time.”

“Careful. It looks like that lightbulb finally shattered.” Tosh said, toeing the glass shards away from the group.

“Right, Ianto, help me carry him up to the med bay, will you?” Owen said, manoeuvring himself so he could do just that.

Ianto nodded silently.

“Gwen and I will check the readings on your laptop, Owen.”

“Yep, good idea”

————————————————————————

It was a good two hours before Jack came round and, when he did, he had a killer headache.

“D’you remember anything, this time?” Owen asked.

Jack hmm’d an affirmative response as he sat up.

“Jack, while you were...whatever that was, you seemed to be creating some sort of energy.”

The Captain looked confused. “That’s impossible, what kind of energy?”

“Atron energy.”

—————————————————————————-

“Jack, what’s that?” Gwen asked.

“That’s the stuff that Time Lords use to regenerate, the stuff that makes up the time vortex. I made a note of it in the Hub’s systems in case The Doctor ever showed up, so i’d know.”

“Does it also fuel your immortality by any chance?” Ianto leaned on the autopsy table.

“I think. That’s what The Doctor said anyway.”

“What, so are you somehow manipulating this time vortex thingy?” Owen questioned.

“I don’t know if that’s even possible.” Jack was quiet for a second before he checked his watch. “Okay, let’s call it a day, we’ll pick this up tomorrow.”

Seeing the dismissal for what it was, Tosh, Gwen and Owen made to leave.

“Owen, do you maybe...want to grab a drink with me?” Tosh said, jogging to catch up as they left the Hub.

Owen looked thoughtful for a second and then “Sure, why not?” he grinned.

Tosh smiled back. “Really?”

“Yep, after you, Tosh, love.”

Gwen smiled as she watched her two friends leave ahead of her, she glanced back and saw Jack leading Ianto up to his office. She shook her head fondly before she made her own way home.


	8. Chapter 8

8

Ianto pulled Jack to a halt just outside his office door. The Captain raised an eyebrow in question.

“Do you want to come back to mine instead?”

Jack grinned. “Yeah, yeah I would.”

————————————————————————

Ianto was a hopeless cook, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try. It had been ages since he and Jack had had a proper cooked meal, let alone one together. Pasta wasn’t too difficult so hopefully everything would go as planned.

Jack was in the shower, thinking. In all honesty, though he’d probably never admit it out loud, he was scared. Normally, he’d just act like nothing was wrong, try and forget that any of this had happened. This time, though, he couldn’t. He had his team - his friends - to look after. The fact that any of them could get hurt because of him was enough to make him want to solve this. He’d narrowly avoided hurting Ianto. He never wanted that to happen again.

Sighing, the Captain turned the water off and stepped out of the shower. He dried off before re-dressing himself in his trousers and undershirt. The Immortal walked through the kitchen and leaned against the wall nearest to his lover.

“Smells delicious.”

Ianto startled, having not heard Jack enter the room. The welshman smiled slightly.

“It’s almost done, get the bowls and stuff, would you?”

Jack returned Ianto’s smile and then turned to do as the young man had asked.

Once the table was set, they sat down to eat. The silence wasn’t awkward, exactly, though neither of them quite knew what to say. It was Jack who spoke up first.

“Ianto, you didn’t get hurt at all earlier, right? Y’know...with the whole…” The captain made a hand gesture.

Ianto reached across the table to take his lover’s hand into his own. “I’m fine, Jack.”

Jack nodded slowly, it would probably be a long time before he accepted the fact that he hadn’t hurt his lover.

Ianto glanced at the clock on the wall, it was somehow nine o’clock already.

“C'mon, I think we should have a early night, yeah?”

Jack nodded and moved to help Ianto clean up. He put the rest of the bottle of wine that they had been drinking back in the fridge before he took Ianto’s hand and was led into the bedroom.

They settled themselves down onto the mattress and snuggled close. Jack leaned forward, pressing his lips against Ianto’s in a tender kiss. They eventually both pulled away, Ianto resting his chin on top of Jack’s head.

———————————————————————

Ianto was woken by the sound of heavy breathing to his right. It took a second for his tired mind to realise what was going on. Jack was having a nightmare.

The welshman swore softly. Unfortunately, nightmares were fairly common for the both of them. He shifted himself so that he was sitting and that Jack’s head was resting on his chest. He stroked his lover's hair softly and whispered reassuring nonsense into his ear. Slowly, Jack’s breathing began to even out and his eyes wearily fluttered open.

“Ianto?” The Immortal’s voice was scratchy, he needed a drink.

“Right here.”

Jack nodded, sitting up to rest his head on Ianto’s shoulder. “Sorry I woke you up.”

“It’s alright.” The young man said. “Do you want to talk about it?”

The Captain seemed to think for a moment before he shook his head. “No...just wanna sit here with you.”

Ianto kissed the top of his lover’s head and pulled the covers up around them.

————————————————————————

“Owen! Take another look at Dai Lloyd’s body and Tosh, bring up the footage and stuff from yesterday!” Jack and Ianto entered the Hub together, about thirty minutes after Gwen had arrived. They were only slightly late.

Ianto headed over to the kitchenette to start brewing the first batch of coffee for the day as Gwen followed Jack up to his office.

“Jack? I quickly ran a few things this morning and may have a few ideas about how to help with your...thing.”

Jack smiled. “Sure, take a seat.”

“So, we’ve established that it’s somehow related to your immortality, yeah? The whole emotions thing seems pretty spot on as well. So, I think we need to work on finding out how it reacts to certain emotions and then find out a way for you to try and control it from there.”

Jack nodded slightly. “The only issue being...the time vortex is impossible to contr-”

Owen’s voice cut him off. “Jack! You’ll wanna come and see this!”

————————————————————————

The whole team had assembled in the med bay, waiting to hear what Owen had to say.

“So, I didn’t spot it the first time, but in my defence it was very missable.” 

Gwen and Tosh shared looks as Ianto rolled his eyes.

“Remind me why I hired you, again?” Jack joked.

“Yeah, yeah whatever, Harkness. D’you want the report or not?” The medic smirked.

“By all means.” The Captain gestured for him to continue.

“If you look very closely, right here in the lining of his throat…”

“I don’t see anything.” Jack shrugged.

“Let me finish!” Owen poked a small black spot with a scalpel. The spot expanded into some sort of opaque bubble.

“Ah.” Gwen leaned in for a better look “That’s what killed him?” 

“As far as I can tell.” Owen said as the bubble deflated.

“Can you cut it out to get a closer look?” Tosh asked.

“You took the words right out of my mouth.”

Jack nodded approvingly. “Good work, Owen. Keep at it.”

“Yep, should have it sorted by lunch. Ianto I might need you to cross reference some stuff?”

The Welshman nodded “Yeah, just tell me what you need and i’ll run down and fetch it.”

Jack clapped his hands “Alright, enough chit-chat, back to work.” He grinned.


	9. Chapter 9

The team sat in the conference room, eating the pizza Ianto had just brought in.

“So, Jack, have you ever heard of this ‘Starcross’ then?” Tosh asked. She and Owen had just been filled in on the interrogations.

The immortal was quiet for a second before he spoke, thinking. “The name sounds...almost familiar, but I don’t know why.”

“Thanks, that was very enlightening.” Owen said, raising an eyebrow.

Gwen shot him a look before she turned to Jack “D’you think that you could’ve read it in a file somewhere?”

The Captain looked doubtful. “I guess?”

“I’ve made a program that’ll alert us of any mentions of the name, wherever they are, we’ll find them.” Tosh took a bite of her food.

“Good work, Tosh.” Jack shifted and put his feet up on the table and, after a sharp glare from his lover, hastily put them back down on the floor.

“So, what do we do in the meantime?” Ianto sipped his drink.

Gwen looked around the room before speaking. “Wait them out, and maybe find out what’s up with Jack?” 

All eyes turned to the Captain. 

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

——————————————————————————

“Tosh! Have a look at Dai Lloyd’s records again, especially his criminal history, see if anything’s sealed off.” Jack exited the conference room.

‘Got it, should be no problem.’ She smirked, heading down to her desk.

‘Gwen, Owen, you look over yesterday’s footage. Ianto, we’re going to the Archives.’

Ianto nodded, slightly confused, increasing his walking pace to catch up with his lover.

Once they reached the lower levels, the young man turned to the Captain. ‘What are we looking for, then?’  
‘Records of ‘Starcross’. The name is familiar, and it must be from one of these files…’ Jack felt a bit uneasy.

Ianto nodded. ‘Shall we start in the S section?’

_______________________________________________________

Five hours (and a fair bit of kissing on company time) later, they still hadn’t found any mention of ‘Starcross’. Jack was beginning to lose hope.

‘Maybe you were thinking of something else?’ Ianto tried.

The immortal shook his head, frustrated. ‘No, I know i’ve heard it before. I just-’ He cut himself off to run his hand through his hair, slumping to the floor.

Ianto followed him down to the floor, placing his arm around the man’s shoulder.

‘Sorry, just annoyed, I guess…’ the Captain trailed off.

‘S’ok, take your time.’ Ianto rubbed his lover's shoulder.

Jack nodded. It had taken a while before he had felt this comfortable being vulnerable around Ianto; he would be damned if he wasn’t going to take the comfort offered. They sat there for a while, just enjoying each other's company. It was usually rare that they got time alone, though that time seemed to becoming more frequent, especially in the last few days.

Jack was the first to move, standing up and brushing off of his clothes before offering his hand to Ianto. The Welshman took it with a small, genuine smile. Together, they headed back up to the main floor of the Hub.

_________________________________________________________

Gwen and Owen went over the footage several times: pausing every few seconds; double the speed, half the speed and finally, through the various detection programs that Torchwood had developed over the years. What the programs were supposed to scan for, they didn’t really know. However, they ran them all anyway. To their mutual disappointment, they all came up blank.

Tosh wasn’t having much luck either. She knew that there had to be something there, hidden. Nobody’s records were quite that clean. No vandalism, no shoplifting, no nothing. Dai had hardly acted like being arrested was a new experience for him, it didn’t make any damn sense. Nevertheless, she would not give up. She wasn’t going to let the team down.

————————————————————————

Jack and Ianto emerged from the lower levels, hand in hand. 

“Tosh, any luck?” Jack asked, disentangling his hand and heading over to her desk.

“Not yet, there’s definitely something there, i’m sure of it. I just can’t seem to get to it.”

“Keep trying, we need that info.” 

Tosh nodded, turning back to her screen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i’m sorry its a bit short, ive been v busy lately

**Author's Note:**

> So, what do yall think??? I don’t have a beta so all mistakes are mine unfortunately.
> 
> im not yet sure how long this is gonna be but i’ll work that out as i go i guess lmao


End file.
